DPS ENROLLEMENT DROP BIGGEST IN 20 YEARS
DETROIT — The Detroit Public Schools is reporting its single
biggest enrollment drop in two decades, according to The Detroit
News.

Enrollment decreased by 12,300 students from last fall, putting
the district's count at 116,800, The News reported. Enrollment
had dropped below 100,000 shortly after the Detroit Federation of
Teachers union conducted an illegal strike that denied
instruction to students for several days in September.

District officials planned for an enrollment drop after the
strike by sending 500 layoff notices to teachers. Layoffs will
begin in December.

Carol Summers, president of the Detroit Council PTA-PTSA,
believes that many more students would have left had the option
been available.

"You have to look at those critical factors," Summers told the
News. "Transportation is a large part of why they stayed."

GOODRICH BATTLES OVER INSTRUCTIONAL TIME AND INSURANCE
GOODRICH, Mich. — Instructional time and health insurance are the
major negotiating issues in the Goodrich school district,
according to The Flint Journal.

The Goodrich teachers union is demanding an increase in
instructional time, even though an arbitrator ruled that the
school district was not in the wrong by revising the school
instructional calendar by 14 days last year, according to The
Journal.

Goodrich also is looking to switch its health insurance provider
from the Michigan Educational Special Services Association to a
more cost-effective one, according to The Journal. MESSA is a
third-party administrator affiliated with the Michigan Education
Association school employees union.

"MESSA is very expensive," Hart told The Journal, "The cost of
benefits packages goes up every year."

According to The Journal, insurance premiums increased by 1.23
percent last year, but have increased by more than 10 percent in
previous years.

"(Last year's small increase) is not a trend," Hart told The
Journal. "We have to look to the future."

DOWAGIAC SCHOOLS CRUNCHED BY TEACHER BENEFITS
DOWAGIAC, Mich. — Payroll in Dowagiac Union Schools has increased
20 percent in five years, while revenues have increased at about
one-fourth that pace, according to The Dowagiac Daily News.

Auditor Mike Wilson explained that the district's current
financial situation is eating away at its general fund balance,
The News reported.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if your major source
of revenue has only increased 5.6 percent since 2002 and your
major expenditure, which is payroll, has increased by 20 percent,
it's got to come from somewhere, and where it's been coming from
is fund balance," Wilson told the school board, according to The
News.

The district and the Dowagiac Education Association currently are
negotiating a new contract, The News reported.

The district recently was named an "outperforming school
district" which the union believes should prompt a faster
contract settlement. The union picketed at a recent school board
meeting where the findings of the district's audit were being
presented.

"What upsets us the most is that we should be the first
priority," union President Bob Kwiatkoski told The News.

FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "School Budgets: A Crisis of
Management, Not Finance," Feb. 11, 2005
http://www.mackinac.org/6980

NILES SCHOOLS LEASE BANDWIDTH
NILES, Mich. — Niles Community Schools are expected to gain more
than $650,000 after agreeing to lease its bandwidth to a Grand
Rapids business technology company, according to the Niles Daily
Star.

Niles was one of a handful of districts that received the
bandwidth as a donation from the Federal Communications
Commission 20 years ago.

"We never used it, never had the equipment, never had the
desire," Superintendent Doug Law told the Star.

The proposed contract with SourcIT will include an initial
payment of $620,000 and a $100 monthly payment for 30 years,
according to the Star.

The contract is awaiting FCC approval, but the district will
receive payments during this fiscal year. The district is
planning on spending some of the money on new computer labs and
for employee fingerprinting.

Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The Six Habits of Fiscally
Responsible Public School Districts," Dec. 3, 2002
http://www.mackinac.org/4891

LAPEER MAY SWITCH TO TRIMESTER SYSTEM
LAPEER, Mich. — The Lapeer school district could switch its high
school to a trimester calendar system in response to the new
state graduation requirements, according to The Flint Journal.

The proposed switch could begin with the 2008-2009 school year
and would allow students to take more electives while still
meeting new graduation requirements. Students will take 60
classes in a four-year period as opposed to the current 48, The
Journal reported.

MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (http://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper
with a circulation of 150,000 published by the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy (http://www.mackinac.org),
a private,
nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.